The first-generation model (by Dean et al.[^3]) had three steps. First, the width of annual tree rings depends on that year’s climate, especially rainfall and temperature. Tree rings provide a climate record for Long House Valley extending …The last of the three steps in the first-generation model was to construct an ‘artificial Anasazi’ history by computer. This involved dropping a few virtual Anasazi farmers into the valley at AD 800; feeding them each year with the calculat…
Dean
scientist · 2 mentions across 1 reading
In this course
Dean co-authored an early agent-based model reconstructing Anasazi settlement patterns in Long House Valley by linking dendrochronological climate data to simulated maize yields and population dynamics. The work exemplifies how computational modeling can reverse-engineer historical human behavior from environmental constraints, a foundational approach in the intersection of complexity science and cultural systems that the course explores as a precursor to contemporary AI modeling of social systems.
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